


Do Omnics Dream of Robotic Sheep?

by chelseyelric



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-21 14:55:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7391761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelseyelric/pseuds/chelseyelric
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Genji has a troubling nightmare. Zenyatta comforts him and they talk of dreams and Zenyatta's past. (Headcanon warning)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do Omnics Dream of Robotic Sheep?

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I literally can't believe that I wrote this so fast! I just uploaded a genyatta fic two DAYS ago! I have a serious obsession. T^T
> 
> This ones a little angsty and contains a headcanon of mine about Zenyatta's past. It is in no way canon, but I do feel like we don't know much about him or the Overwatch timeline so it could fit. I won't say it here and spoil the surprise, but please let me know what you think at the end? :3
> 
> Once again dedicated to scuzer on tumblr. They and their genyatta constant are the absolute stuff! XD
> 
> Enjoy <3

Genji was unaware that he was screaming until Zenyatta called for him to wake up. His eyes were instantly open, wide and frightened and wet behind his visor. It was almost completely black in his room, the only light source coming from the concerned monk beside him. 

It was just a dream, then.

He didn't want to admit that he was shaking but he could feel the tremors rattling through his carbon frame. An unsteady hand rose to the latch at his temple, releasing the piece of dense plastic to reveal reddened watery eyes. 

"I'm sorry, I...," but Genji's voice wavered as much as his hands, making him unable to get the words out as the memory flashed in his mind. He rubbed tear streaks away in embarrassment, not caring that the metal of his hand tugged at his exposed flesh. It was quiet now, the kind of quiet that was heavy after a loud noise. Shame roiled white hot in his core at having disturbed his master over something so foolish. At having him see him like this. Zenyatta had been teaching Genji to love and accept himself and the cyborg had thought that he had been making great strides. On a subconscious level, however, it was obvious that he was still quite troubled. An angry sob racked through his chest.

"Shh...," Zenyatta soothed, inviting his student to place his head in his floating lap with outstretched arms. Emotions were whipping through Genji like a small ship in a storm and in that moment, in the darkness, his teacher seemed a beckoning lighthouse. Without much hesitation, Genji moved over his modest sleeping mat to lay the back of his head across his lover's lap. The omnic leant over his prone student and gently tapped his glowing head plate against the metal plane of Genji's forehead, transferring a small sparked 'kiss' before simply allowing the two surfaces to be touching. It had the desired effect as Genji's ragged breathing began to even and his tears slowed.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Zenyatta offered.

Genji nodded, knowing from his master's teachings that it was both healthy and wise to share one's thoughts and feelings. His throat was still tight, but he pressed himself to begin before his pride could stop him.

"I was...fighting my brother in our old dojo. I was the way I am now. Modified and cybernetic. We were both as demons in battle until my mechanical parts began to malfunction and fall off of my body. Piece by piece they shed, clanging loudly to the floor as I backed away and my brother stared, uncaring. In that moment, I glanced in a mirror, seeing myself young and whole and beautiful." 

Zenyatta nodded, remaining ever attentive.

"I was so happy. That is...until my limbs and other body parts begin falling off in a similar fashion, littering the floor along with the machinery. I was screaming in horror. Screaming in pain. Screaming at the thought of myself and how I was only parts of a person and robot. Not a whole of anything. And my brother simply watched, cold and unfeeling until there was nothing to me but a disembodied scream."

As his story came to a close, Zenyatta tenderly rubbed circles against the metal where Genji's cheek should have been, allowing for Genji to steadily regain his composure. The monk let silence weave naturally through the air, waiting for his student to ask his opinion.

"Do you dream, sensei?"

Zenyatta's optic lights flickered in surprise then steadied. He gazed into his lover's vulnerable brown eyes for a few moments before replying, "At times."

"Please, tell me about it?" Genji pleaded, obviously wanting a distraction from his nightmare. Zenyatta lifted his head a bit so that he could properly look at his student while he spoke.

"I'm not sure that what I tell you will comfort you."

"I am curious," he insisted, voice still raw from his previous cries. He remained quiet and hopeful until Zenyatta began. 

"I do not dream in the human sense, as I do not sleep in the human sense. Sleep, for me, is simply a time to cool my systems and sort through data that I have collected during the day. But, at times, I have an idle period when nothing further can be done to me. That is the time that I dream," he confided in a hushed tone to couple the dim atmosphere of the room.

Genji stayed silent, just as his sensei had for him, until he pressed on.

"They are simply recordings of my most impacting memories. On the rare occasions that I do have them, I seem to predominately dream of two things. The first being a most terrible nightmare," Zenyatta whispered, catching Genji off guard.

"I am replayed the video archives of the time I spent fighting in the Omnic Crisis. The chaos, the screams, the incredible waste of innocent human life. And I was powerless to stop myself."

Genji looked puzzled, urging Zenyatta to explain.

"I know you try not to think of it, Genji. Or perhaps it simply hadn't ever crossed your mind, but I have existed for twenty years while the Omnic Crisis began thirty years ago. I was created by the omnium in the very heated last years of the conflict. In essence, I was originally made only to destroy."

Genji was rigid, trying to comprehend what was being said and attempting to listen calmly to his master's story while his own nightmare became all but forgotten.

"I dream of when I had no power over my body. I was simply ordered by the omniums to fight humanity. I did not know why they wanted it, and still don't, but I did as I was told because their pull on my mind was too strong. I remember, though. Even if I could not control my body, I could use my eyes to record. Most omnics have opted to have their time in the Crisis wiped from their minds, but I force myself to remember and honor every single human I felled through my teachings of peace and acceptance."

The cyborg suddenly didn't feel so lonely in his sadness and felt a much deeper respect for the omnic monk. Zenyatta's optics flickered brighter and he tipped his head, his way of smiling. 

"The other most prominent of my dreams is of you, Genji."

Genji sat up from Zenyatta's lap to recline on his elbows. "Me?"

"Yes. More specifically, the day we met. You were simply breathtaking against the backdrop of the mountains, the way your armored body looked sleek and striking as you moved in the sun. You were a being who understood what it was like to be both mortal and machine. You seemed to have been conjured out of one of my deepest desires for this world.

He remembered how eager the omnic had been to speak to him, to introduce himself and to inform him of his travelings.

"But you were not in the favorable state of mind that I had expected. You were self-loathing. Confused and conflicted. I felt the very strong urge to help you get past that negativity as I had learned with Tekhartha Mondatta and the Shambali to do with myself. I wanted you to be whole, in mind and body."

Zenyatta poked the arch of Genji's nose playfully, the flesh exposed without its protective plastic. "But after a time, I simply came to want you."

Genji snorted, clicking his visor back into place. He could feel himself getting flustered at the omnic's shameless confession. He turned and offered a sparked kiss to his mentor. His friend. His lover.

"We are quite the pair."

"I am aware of that."

"Thank you for telling me your story," the cyborg whispered reverently.

"Thank you for listening," Zenyatta simply replied. "I hope that my past doesn't change how you see me now."

Genji's mind conjured up memories of the omnic. His shimmering silver and copper colored frame glistening in the setting sun, peacefully sitting among nature while meditating. The monk's ethereal gold arms that appeared when Zenyatta fought for what he believed in and for those who couldn't fight for themselves. His head tilt smiles. His embarrassed apologies. His gentle caresses on the plating of Genji's cheek. 

"Never."

One grateful omnic head tilt later, the pair settled wordlessly into Genji's small sleep mat. The fit may have been tight, but neither particularly cared. They craved a physical proximity that coupled their newfound emotional closeness.

**Author's Note:**

> Well? How was it? Please feel free to tell me :3


End file.
